


Shut Up Miller

by sheroars



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, FIx It, Fluffy, Handshakes, Hurt/Comfort, No thank you, Still Not Hugging You, Swearing, Writer's Block, i'm not crying, you're crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 06:48:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3560117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheroars/pseuds/sheroars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're not hugging me." </p><p>"What exactly do you call this then?" </p><p>"Just shut up Miller."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shut Up Miller

"Handshake?" He raised an eyebrow at the preferred hand.  She swallowed.  It was surreal.  Neither could quite process what the next morning would be like.

"Yah.  Not hugging you." His fingers slipped along hers and in that moment, when she couldn't lift tear blinded eyes to meet his, Alec Hardy made a choice.  Perhaps it was out of character.  She yelped. Not quite the reaction he had in mind when he pulled on her arm they same time he stepped forward, effectively reeling her into an embrace.  

Her arms remained resolutely at her sides.   He wasn't giving her much room to protest though. 

"Alec don't-" 

"You're not hugging me." He squeezed his eyes shut.

"What the fuck do you call this then?"

"I'm hugging you-just shut up and let me say goodbye to you." She took in a shuddering breath and seemed to come to a conclusion of her own, growing rather tired of being trapped to his chest.  She forced his arms aside so she could slide one of her own around his neck, creating a nook to hide her face in against his shoulder and fisting her other hand in his jacket.  He thought she might suffocate them both.  He circled her waist much more gently this time.  Ellie...  

He began to understand why she refused to let him touch her.  It was too close.  Too much all at once.  Too raw, too real.  Oh God.  

She mumbled something unintelligible into his neck and a shiver rippled up his spine.  Fuck.   

"What?" 

"You have a job here." She pulled her head back to look at him, wiping at her eyes.  He maintained his grip on her, acutely aware of her hands on his arm and lapel.  "You have a house and a job and people here.  Why are you leaving?" He shook his head.  He couldn't do this.  He couldn't leave.  He couldn't stay.  "If you leave I feel like you'll forget about us.  I'm not ready for that." She left us ambiguous but he damn well knew.  He wouldn't call her.  Maybe send snarky texts. He wouldn't visit.  He would stay away.  She would leave messages or even hunt him down.  It would be an unhealthy cycle.  It would fucking hurt.  They would get angry.  

"Why should I stay?"

"We need you, you wanker." She pushed on his chest.  

"Who's we?" She set her jaw and looked out the glass door, at her car, where she should have gone a few minutes ago.  Where she should be driving off right now.  "Look at me." He caught her side of her face ever so gently in the palm of his hand and shit that was too much.  She flinched.  He might as well have hit her.  She didn't back down though.  He caught his wrists, both of them, and removed them from her body.  She didn't dare let them go though.

"I'm not going to say I need you Hardy.  I don't know if I do or not.  But I know if you leave I'm going to be sad and I'm damn well tired of being sad all the fucking time."

"You never let me near you." He was fumbling.  What to do what to do...  What did this mean?  

"If I let you then I'd be falling apart every other minute.  I can't- couldn't afford that.  That isn't how it works with us, I'm not supposed to miss you-Jesus Christ."  Ellie sucked in a breath.  "Tom, Fred and me are meeting the Latimers on the beach for lunch."  She let his wrists go and pulled the sleeves of her orange jacket down over her hands.  They were reeling, the both of them.  He blinked and she was gone.  

~

 

Ellie watched Tom and Chloe and chase Fred in and out of the shallows, pants rolled up to their knees, kicking frigid water at each other. She sat between Beth and Mark with the new baby on her lap.  They noticed the figure striding down along the beach before she did.   

"Is that the bloody copper?"

"Hardy?" All the air left Ellie's lungs.  She pressed the baby into Beth's arms. 

"Holy shit." She met him just out of earshot of the party.  He fought a smile and failed.  She crossed her arms and let him stand a bit closer than he normally did.  

"I got it." He breathed softly. 

"Got what?"   

"This-" He gestured between the two of them. "It's codependence yah?  We fill needs." 

"Codependence." She smiled softly down at her shoes. "So what does that mean then?" 

"It means I asked my daughter if she would be interested in staying on a beach for the summer." 

"Oh?" 

"It means that we're gonna talk to each other like human beings." She peered and him skeptically.  "We're going to figure out what exactly happened to us here and why I can't stop seeing your fucking jacket in my sleep." Ellie glanced over her shoulder.  Everyone was pointedly ignoring them.  Aside from Fred.  He was waving.  She waved back.  He butted the toes of his dress shoes up against her trainers.  

"Is that all then?"

"I also think it means you won't jump out of your skin every time I touch you."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Friends like their friends Miller." He reminded her.

"Friends use first names.  No way this is going to work." He rolled his eyes and held his breath, catching her face in his hands and planting a rather abrupt kiss, square on her mouth. She laughed so hard he straightened up.  Not yet.  But yah.  Maybe she could get used to that.  Eventually.     

"Just shut up Ellie Miller.  Just shut up and let this happen."  

"Fucking hell Hardy." She brushed her fingers over his stupid beard.  Her throat was tight and there were tears in his eyes for once.  "Thank you."  He smiled again, against her forehead after brushing a kiss across her hairline.   

**Author's Note:**

> Someone give me prompts, I miss writing these two.


End file.
